Affirmative counseling with trans/gender-variant people of color.

Dying to Be Normal

10.1093/oso/9780190685218.001.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Brett Krutzsch

Keyword(s):

Social Inclusion ◽

The United States ◽

People Of Color ◽

Equal Rights ◽

Lgbt Rights ◽

Gender Variant ◽

Political Debates ◽

Politics And Religion ◽

American Citizenship ◽

Matthew Shepard

Through an examination of publicly mourned gay deaths in America, Brett Krutzsch counters the common perception that LGBT politics and religion have been oppositional to one another. Dying to Be Normal reveals how gay activists have used religion to bolster the argument that gays are essentially the same as straights, and therefore deserving of equal rights. Krutzsch’s analysis turns to the memorialization of Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk, Tyler Clementi, Brandon Teena, and F. C. Martinez, as well as to campaigns like the It Gets Better Project and national tragedies like the Pulse nightclub shooting to illustrate how activists used specific deaths to win acceptance, influence political debates over LGBT rights, and encourage assimilation. Throughout, Krutzsch shows how, in the fight for greater social inclusion, activists relied on Christian values and rhetoric to portray gays as upstanding Americans. As Krutzsch demonstrates, gay activists regularly reinforced a white Protestant vision of acceptable American citizenship that often excluded people of color, gender-variant individuals, non-Christians, and those who did not adhere to Protestant Christianity’s sexual standards. The first book to detail how martyrdom has influenced national debates over LGBT rights, Dying to Be Normal establishes how religion has shaped gay assimilation in the United States and the mainstreaming of particular gays as “normal” Americans.

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“The Place Where Two Discriminations Meet”: Race, Gender, and the Threat of Violence

Dying to Be Normal ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190685218.003.0005 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 117-148

Author(s):

Brett Krutzsch

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Native American ◽

Gay Men ◽

Transgender Women ◽

People Of Color ◽

Gender Variant ◽

Victims Of Violence ◽

Lgbt People ◽

Gender Presentation ◽

Matthew Shepard

Chapter 4 highlights how transgender women and queer people of color have been more frequent victims of violence than white gay men even though their murders have received less attention. The chapter turns to three films that address what most news outlets overlooked. In particular, Chapter 4 explores the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry about the murder of transgender man Brandon Teena, the 2009 film Two Spirits about the murder of gender-variant Native American F. C. Martinez, and the 2014 film Out in the Night about an attack on seven African American lesbians in 2006. The chapter further demonstrates how much of the activism surrounding Harvey Milk, Matthew Shepard, and Tyler Clementi, as well as the It Gets Better Project, ignored issues of race, class, gender presentation, and religion that many LGBT people have endured despite proclamations that acceptance comes with the march of time.

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Research/Advocacy/Community: Reflections on Asian American trauma, heteropatriarchal betrayal, and trans/gender-variant health disparities research

Health Culture and Society ◽

10.5195/hcs.2013.153 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 199-229 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

S. J. Hwahng

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Asian American ◽

Sexual Minority ◽

Low Income ◽

Social Transformation ◽

Well Being ◽

Social Contexts ◽

People Of Color ◽

Sexual Minority Women ◽

Gender Variant

This article first examines the author’s positionality with reference to the historical and inter-generational transmission of Asian trauma, the contemporary plight of North Koreans, and the betrayal of anatomically-female individuals (including those who are sexual minority/gender-variant) within Asian heteropatriarchal systems. An analysis of the relevance of empirical research on low-income trans/gender-variant people of color is then discussed, along with an examination of HIV and health disparities in relation to the socio-economic positioning of low-income trans/gender-variant people of color and sexual minority women, and how social contexts often gives rise to gender identity, including transmasculine identities. What next follows is an appeal to feminist and queer/trans studies to truly integrate those located on the lowest socio-economic echelons. The final section interrogates concepts of health, well-being, and happiness and how an incorporation of the most highly disenfranchised/marginalized communities and populations challenges us to consider more expansive visions of social transformation.

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